Rheta Grimsley Johnson: Sweep away the excess

6:35 PM,
Nov. 3, 2012

Written by

Rheta Grimsley Johnson

My Louisiana buddy Greg Guirard, who doesn't phone often, called all excited one day to tell me he'd learned a trick.

Now this is a man who has lived more than seven decades, made a living from the Atchafalaya Swamp, traveled the world at various times and expertly photographs things that he loves. I tend to listen.

Get a straw broom, he said, relatively new, and with patience place your palm on the top of the wooden handle. Oh, so carefully, balance the broom on the floor. The broom eventually will stand by itself, he said, and remain standing for as long as nobody runs into it. ...